LONGTIME ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL, VFW SUPPORTER

As a principal in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, Alice Tanner dedicated herself to inspiring children. In retirement, she channeled her energy and acumen to supporting the Veterans of Foreign Wars, as president of the Ladies Auxiliary of VFW Mission Valley Post 3787 and as chaplain of the state Ladies Auxiliary, where she was on track to be president of the 100,000-member organization in a couple of years.

“She was a great leader,” said Mary Bellon, a friend and past department president of the state VFW Ladies Auxiliary. “She was behind all the veterans and their families. I wish all of our sisters had her enthusiasm.”

Dr. Tanner died of lung cancer Jan. 25 at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego. She was 73.

In addition to her local presidency and state chaplaincy, Dr. Tanner was president of VFW Ladies Auxiliary California District 1. She also served on the board of the National Women’s Hall of Fame from 1998 to 2001.

“She definitely was able to organize people and get them working for the very best possible means to accomplish things,” said longtime friend and next door neighbor Terri Strait. “She was a really dynamic woman, but at the same time, you felt very comfortable with her.”

Alice Barbieri was born on June 4, 1939, in Seneca Falls, N.Y., the eldest of five daughters to Anthony and Frances Barbieri. She graduated from Mynderse Academy in New York, and received her bachelor’s in library science from Geneseo State Teachers College in New York in 1961. In 1968, she received her master’s in library science at Albany State University, and earned her doctorate in human behavior from United States International University, San Diego in 1976.

Marrying a career naval officer, Dr. Tanner lived all over the world including Yokosuka, Japan, where she taught third grade for the Department of Defense. She taught third and fourth grade in Oakland and New York before moving in 1968 to San Diego, teaching library science at San Diego State University.

Dr. Tanner was a librarian in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District before becoming principal of the district’s Rancho Elementary, Bancroft Elementary and La Mesa Elementary schools. She retired in 1996.

“There is a quote by William James, a famous educator and philosopher, that says, ‘I will act as though what I do makes a difference.’ That pretty much personified Alice Tanner,” said Joan Heraty, a friend and former La Mesa-Spring Valley School District colleague. “She was chosen to be a principal back in 1981 when it was still rare for a woman to be a principal.

“She was a huge advocate of getting computers and technology into the hands of children way before it was fashionable. She was always ahead of the curve on everything.”

A voracious reader, particularly of classic literature, Dr. Tanner recently attended a fledgling book group comprised of several women in her Serra Mesa neighborhood.

“Her educator leadership skills came right in there, and lo and behold, she got us all settled on ‘Silas Marner,’” Strait said. “There was no messing around.”